Amnesty International issued the below action alert, urging supporters to take action to advocate for the freedom of Khalida Jarrar, detained Palestinian parliamentarian, feminist and prisoner advocate:

Dear Activists,

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PARLIAMENTARIAN DETAINED WITHOUT CHARGE

Palestinian parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar has been given a six-month administrative detention order. She has chronic health problems, and now faces indefinite detention without charge or trial, after defying an Israeli order to ban her from her city.

Israeli forces arrested 52-year-old Khalida Jarrar at 1.30am on 2 April 2015, at her home in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. They interrogated her for over four hours in Israel’s Ofer detention center in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), before transferring her to HaSharon Prison in Israel. Her lawyer told the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that her detention order was signed on the day of her arrest, suggesting it had been prepared in advance. Khalida Jarrar has suffered a series of strokes and has high blood cholesterol; she needs medication and blood tests every few days for her condition.

An outspoken and active critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, Khalida Jarrar defied a six-month military order to forcibly transfer her from Ramallah to Jericho based on “secret evidence” in August 2014. In February 2015, she was appointed to the Palestinian Higher National Committee to Follow Up with the International Criminal Court (ICC), formed by President Abbas following Palestine’s signature of the Rome Statute of the ICC on 31 December 2014. She is vice chair of the board of Palestinian human rights organization Addameer (which advocates for the rights of Palestinian prisoners), and was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006.

The Israeli military withhold most evidence against administrative detainees, claiming this is for security reasons. On 8 April a military judge adjourned a review of Khalida Jarrar’s detention until 14 April to allow the defense to see some of the evidence against her, including footage of her at demonstrations. Israeli military law in the OPT allows for the prosecution of Palestinian demonstrators participating in any assembly deemed to be “political” and requires permission from the military commander for gathering of more than 10 people. The prosecution said they would not charge Khalida Jarrar since it would make her eligible for bail, indicating that that her detention is a punishment for her political activism. Her detention order can be renewed indefinitely.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Khalida Jarrar has been subjected to decades of harassment and intimidation by the Israeli authorities, who have declared her a security risk without ever charging her with any criminal offense. In August 2014, the head of the Israeli military’s Central Command gave her a six-month “Special Supervision Order” based on unspecified “serious security reasons that necessitate the … order to protect the security of the area”, requiring her to leave her home in Ramallah and confining her to Jericho unless she received “special permission” from the military authorities. No further details concerning the information against her were made available to enable her to challenge the decision judicially. She defied the order, establishing herself in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) compound, where she remained until 16 September, when the order was reduced to one month.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please write immediately in English, Hebrew or your own language:

Calling on the Israeli authorities to release Khalida Jarrar and all other administrative detainees unless they are promptly charged with internationally recognizable criminal offenses and brought to trial in conformity with international fair trial standards, and to end the use of administrative detention, which violates the right to fair trial;

Calling on them to ensure that Khalida Jarrar promptly receives any medical treatment she may require.

Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the below date. If you receive a response from a government official, please forward it to us at uan@aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below.